Sunday: Hili dialogue

It’s Sunday (Ceiling Cat’s Day), August 26, 2018, and National Cherry Popsicle Day. Here are Five Fun Facts about Popsicles from Foodimentary. It was on the Popsicle wrappers that I learned my first big word, “quiescent”, as the wrapper described the Popsicle as a “quiescently frozen confection”.

In 1905 in San Francisco, 11-year-old Frank Epperson was mixing a white powdered flavoring for soda and water out on the porch

He left it there, with a stirring stick still in it.

That night, temperatures reached a record low, and the next morning, the boy discovered the drink had frozen to the stick, inspiring the idea of a fruit-flavored ‘Popsicle’, a portmanteau of soda pop and icicle.

Eighteen years later in 1923, Epperson introduced frozen pop on a stick to the public at Neptune Beach, an amusement park in Belmar, New Jersey. Seeing that it was a success, in 1924 Epperson applied for a patent for his “frozen confectionery” which he called “the Epsicle ice pop”.

He renamed it to Popsicle, allegedly at the insistence of his children.

Here’s the Tweet of the Day from former CIA director and advisor to Barack Obama, John Brennan (via Heather Hastie):

I take no delight in seeing the steady collapse of a U.S. Presidency, but I do take strong comfort in knowing that the rule of law & our great government institutions are prevailing. Things ultimately will get better, and we will heal as a Nation.

On August 26, 1542, the conquistador Francisco de Orellana reached the Atlantic Ocean after navigating the Amazon River, the first known traverse of its entire length. On this day in 1883, the volcano Krakatoa began its final eruption, culminating in a Big Blast the next day, killing (with the attendant tsunamis) over 36,000 people. As noted above, it was on this day in 1920 that the 19th Amendment took force, giving American women the right to vote. It took sooooo long! On this day in 1944, after the German garrison had surrendered, Charles de Gaulle entered Paris, pretty much taking credit for the city’s liberation (see the article on de Gaulle by Adam Gopnik in a recent New Yorker). Speaking of French, it was on August 26, 1977 that the National Assembly of Quebec adopted the Charter of the French Language, making that the official language of the province. Exactly one year later, John Paul 1 was elected Pope, but held that position for only 33 days, dying suddenly of a heart attack. It was one of the shortest papacies (is that the right word?) in history. Finally, it was on this day that Jaycee Dugard, who had been abducted 18 years earlier, was discovered alive in California. She was only 11 when kidnapped, and bore two daughters during captivity after being repeatedly raped by her captor.

Play (fun) leads to and is a form of learning, and learning leads to intelligence and adaptability, which all add up to a potential evolutionary advantage. Human kids play in order to learn all sorts of basic things about the world. Kittens tumble around playing and acting as if hunting. Nature is full of play. But I’ve never seen a non-human juggler before.

A vapor cone, also known as shock collar or shock egg, is a visible cloud of condensed water which can sometimes form around an object moving at high speed through moist air, for example an aircraft flying at transonic speeds https://t.co/k4SeMAAcNSpic.twitter.com/TEVpTT8gXT

I learned today that JK Rowling a) is a satirical Trump twitterer and b) exposed Trump as the schoolyard bully his behavioral development stopped at.

In further news (to me), Trump a) admits to take his legal advice from television shows and b) claims that two of Cohen’s crimes – those that explicitly involves him, of course – that were admitted and accepted as crimes by a court were ‘not crimes’.

One of the most effective and concise anti-Trump tweets I’ve seen was JK Rowling posting a video of Trump barging the Montenegrin leader aside at a summit, and accompanying it with the words “you tiny, tiny, tiny little man”.
She’s very good. I like her a lot, although I’m not much of a Harry Potter fan.

That video of Trump pushing aside the Montenegrin PM is so telling, not just the act itself, but also his body language. It’s a classic. I bookmarked the video when I first saw it. It was so telling. It’s worth another look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iimj0j4NYME.

At 40 seconds in there’s a still from above showing the shock wave in the dust. It always seems intuitively wrong to me that the shock wave extends straight out each side of the car. I instinctively think the wave should be swept back the way bow waves of a boat are. It isn’t till one carefully considers how a wave front travelling at the same speed as the car would propagate, that the picture seems credible.

And at 43 seconds there’s a still that shows the shock waves above the car as sharp-edged lines in clear air.

It’s interesting that the people who linked to it on Twitter all seem to be Trump supporters. Presumably they like the fact that it makes Sanders seem like a dominant winner, and the press a bunch of whining morons. Personally I prefer the lip-sync videos that are absurd and silly rather than partisan.

I might believe the Popsicle story … except it is set in San Fransisco. A sugary water mixture will freeze but only at significantly below freezing temperatures (think minus 5-10 Celsius which translates to -23 to -14 Fahrenheit). San Fransisco has a reputation for being cold … during the day time (as the fog blocks the sun) but that same fog and the temperature moderation from the bay and ocean (on three sides) keeps SF nighttime temps quite moderate.

There’s something wrong with your temperature ranges, Steve. −5°C to −10°C translates to +23°F to +14°F. To this Ottawa boy, that’s not “significantly below freezing” but a mild winter day!

Assuming your source for the freezing point of sugar water was expressed correctly in Celsius, I did a quick Google search and discovered in the Wikipedia entry for SF that the record low temperature was −3°C, set in December 1932. So I think your conclusion was sound, despite the conversion gaff.

He lived out at Oakland, Calif which had a lowest recorded of −4.3 °C in 1990 – there doesn’t seem to have been unusual weather in 1905 in Calif. I think the story unlikely unless there’s some wind chill effect that can draw heat away from the cup.

Out on an upper ledge all night long a 24 – year – old son of a mother, Ms Phoebe Burn, who told him
to do The Right Thing but, by his doing so,
outraged all of those other legislators who
did .not. wanna hear or see what:
he, Mr Harry Burn, had done: he had listened
to a woman.

Who had told her son thus, “A mama would .not.
want something bad for her child. She would not. I know a mama would only want for her child
to have happen what is a good thing.”

” When tempers had cooled, Burn was asked to
explain the red rose on his lapel and his
“yellow-rose” vote. He responded that while
it was true he was wearing a red rose, what
people couldn’t see was that his breast
pocket contained a telegram from his mother
in East Tennessee. She urged him to do the
right thing and vote in favor of the
amendment. Governor A. H. Roberts signed the
bill on August 24, 1920 and two days later,
the Nineteenth Amendment became national law. ”

It should be difficult to not concur with
Mr Ken Burns ( w an S ), documentarian, who s
states that nothing … … no event
including not even its wars of then … …
within the 20th Century impacted .more
people. than this one yellow – rose vote.

Juggling otter is best otter! That gave me a big smile, but then I read the comments. Only two threads in, somebody says, “My spirit animal.” The only reply: “not unless you’re a member of an indigenous nation, no it damn well isn’t.” Of course that was going to happen. Sigh.